Cardiff City ordered to pay full transfer fee for Emiliano Sala to Nantes

After more than four years in the courts, the ruling on the tragic transfer of Emiliano Sala has been resolved. Cardiff City have paid the first installment of the transfer and FIFA has ordered the Championship club to pay the last two installments for the signing of the deceased Argentine striker, $6.5m and $5.5m respectively, to make a total of €12m of the $18.5m final transfer fee that the Welsh club refused to pay.

Legal proceedings over Sala transfer

According to French newspaper L’Équipe, the highest international football body found in the ruling that “the agreement had been concluded two days before Emiliano Sala’s death”. At the time of his death, the player was travelling in a private plane over the English Channel to finalise the transfer to the then Premier League club. Cardiff had to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but were unsuccessful.

Cardiff have now confirmed the FIFA ruling, while L’Équipe also report that Nantes were “delighted with this new victory”. The French club’s lawyers, Jérôme Marsaudon and Louis-Marie Absil, told RMT that, “Nantes hopes that after four years of proceedings, Cardiff City will finally respect its financial commitments and stop its procedural harassment. Nantes is anxious to definitively close the legal aspect of this tragic accident”.